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As a sort of fringe participant in the current Jewish art scene, I see both Elke’s and Josh’s discussions as hinting at the broader question of what art does (or should do) for a community. And this question is actually highly problematic, as the Six Points episode illustrates. As reported in the Forward (http://forward.com/articles/177299/six-points-jewish-arts-fellowship-closes-with-no-r/?p=1), with Six Points, the question seems to have been answered by the arbiters of ‘mainstream’ Jewish culture at the tops of conventional funding organizations: without some engagement with Israel, Jewish arts — and perhaps any Jewish program? — has no place on a list of grantees. In other words, by Josh’s definition, the New York UJA-Federation failed to see the creation of Jewish art as anything other than a mechanism for some other goal, and not a goal in and of itself.

However, in my own response to the Six Points news (http://zcurator.tumblr.com/post/51567525791/image-from-ofri-cnaanis-sota-project-do-jewish) I wondered if this question is not one about Israel, but rather about dollars and cents, and the challenge for funders of evaluating the impact of arts programs — like any other program — as part of their wider mission. The Next-Gen Donor problem that Josh raises hints that philanthropies will increasingly expect arts organizations and programs to be self-supporting in the long run. And, as much as I hate to admit it, this is a valid question. On the other hand, as Elke suggests, there is great power in the ability of art to provide an entry point into Jewish culture and community, so much so that it is integral to the continuity of Judaism itself. And perhaps the New York UJA-Federation agrees, and in this case just didn’t regard what the Six Points fellows were doing (or not doing) as commensurate with the organization’s mission. If that is the case, then we are discussing how the arts are supposed to serve the Jewish community.

Yet, as a museum curator dealing primarily with Jewish culture, I find this question about instrumentalizing art for a narrow purpose to be dangerous. It closes the door to the idea that art’s great gift is that it has no discernable end — which is hard to wrap your head around if you’re sitting in the UJA offices looking for the ROI on Six Points. So the problem with which we must grapple is perhaps not how the arts should or can serve the Jewish community, but how to find funders, both within and beyond the community, capable to prioritizing support for the arts for its own sake.

Ms. Sudin’s organization is doing exactly what they should be doing. I am especially happy to see that she has received support from New York’s PresenTense program. These are exactly the kinds of investments the “organized” Jewish community must make to ensure that the artistic ecosystem is populated with insurgent, audacious and passionate artists and art presenters like Jewish Art Now.

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